In Search Of A Sun Guardian
by AppleDragon
Summary: Recipe for disaster:  Take one peaceful Namimori.  Add one dysfunctional prince and one  impassive frog.  Stir.  And hope for the best.
1. The Fury of the Shark

**Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! (sadly) and I lack the artistic skills to so much as replicate these characters, let alone have created them in the first place. **

**Read, enjoy (hopefully) and review (please). Should I continue? :3**

**Coarse language. Because this is the Varia, after all. :)**

* * *

><p>"Damn boss!" Squalo cursed quietly (for him, which admittedly was not very quiet at all).<p>

"Had to beat up our martial arts expert." He continued, casually tossing a priceless antique vase to the floor.

"Not to mention our only Sun flame user." An exquisitely crafted glass bowl was next to go.

"How the _HELL_ are we going to _HEAL_ our _FUCKING_ _MEN_ now?" He snarled, flinging a hand-carved mahogany chair at the floor-to-ceiling glass window, effectively shattering it.

"_STUPID. BOSS._" The silver-haired swordsman yelled. Releasing a _VOOIIII_ of frustration, he promptly began dismantling every piece of furniture in the room.

Very violently.

He was so focused in his efforts that he didn't notice the shaggy-haired blonde slip silently into the room.

"_Ushishishishi~_"

Squalo froze. Taking a deep breath, he reminding himself that he was already one (technically) man short, and that he really could not afford to lose another.

"What's wrong, _Commander_?" Bel drawled, drawing the title out so that it gained an almost mocking edge.

Clenching his fists so that the skin over his knuckles turned almost white, Squalo held his breath and forced himself to count to ten. _One, two, thr-_

Bel smiled lazily, bearing his teeth in a wolfish grin. And Squalo promptly lost it.

"_YOU IDIOTIC, INFURIATING, UP-YOURSELF PRICK!_" he growled, striding over to the maniac Prince, who merely grinned wider. Squalo took a deep breath, and was about to let rip with some decidedly less socially acceptable words when the _unbearable, narcissistic _assassin cut in smoothly.

"Royal blood flows through my veins. It would be best if you did not spill it."

Naturally, this only caused to further incense Squalo. Since it is, after all, Squalo who we are talking about here, increase in anger is directly proportional to increase in volume.

"_VOOOOOOOOOIII!"_ he roared, spraying Bel's face with flecks of spittle as the blonde grimaced with disgust. "Don't speak to your Com-"

"Oi, Strategy Commander." It was now the emotionless voice of Fran that stopped Squalo's rant – he had been interrupted twice now, within the space of two minutes, he noted bitterly, and he reminded himself to punish them for that later. For now, though, he was interested in what the youngest Varia member had to say. "Can't we just recruit someone new?"

The Varia Commander blinked. "_VOOII!_" he hollered. "Do you know how incredibly _irritating_ it would be to get a new member? Do you know how many tests it would take to determine Varia quality?"

Through the ranting, Fran stood with an impassive look on his face. "But if we don't get a Sun user, we'll all be dead, and then there won't be any Varia quality because there won't be any Varia." He pointed out, discussing the death of everyone in the room with less emotion than is used to describe the weather.

"_VOII!_" Squalo glared at the turquoise-haired boy, about to snap his head off, but then he stopped. And blinked. And a slow smile started to spread across his face. "Bel."

"Aah?" The blonde sneered. Trying to quash the quickly rising bloodlust rising in him, Squalo glowered back.

"Since you think you're so fucking high and mighty, why don't you go to Japan to find us some new members."

The grin on Bel's face quickly disappeared.

Squalo held back a smirk, closely watching the irked blonde as he added "Oh, and take Fran with you."

Bel frowned. "How in hell am I supposed to complete missions, then? You see, there is this thing called an ocean which separates Japan and Italy. Oceans are basically a shitload of salt water in one large as hell place, which are pretty damn hard to cross. And there is no fucking way I am babysitting."

"Think of it as a hiatus, Bel." Squalo grinned. "Unless, of course, you feel you are incapable of performing this task?" As Strategy Commander of this highly dysfunctional group, he knew exactly which buttons to press, and he did so with great joy (or as close to joy as Squalo could feel without being sickened. Let's just say sadistic enjoyment).

"Uh, Commander, I'm not too ha-" Fran deadpanned, looking straight ahead of himself.

"VOOII! Shut the fuck up, you toad-head!" Squalo roared, not taking his eyes off Bel for one moment lest he end up with a knife in the back. "Go fucking pack. Your flight's tomorrow."

Squalo watched with vindictive satisfaction as Fran and Bel left the room. Smirking, he waited until the door was almost closed before hollering, "At three a.m!"

He sighed contentedly, listening to the cursing that was not quite muffled by the heavy mahogany door that had swung shut.

_Life was good,_ he thought, moving to sit down before noticing his chair was gone, replaced instead by a mass of splintered pieces of wood.

As was his desk, and pretty much everything else.

The scowl immediately appeared back on his face.

"_VOOII! SOMEONE CLEAN THIS FUCKING MESS UP AND GET ME A CHAIR!"_


	2. Dreams

**Thank you for the reviews, _SwallowSword _and _MrsRegulusBlack123_! I love the both of you to death. Really. XD**

**So sorry for the late update ;A; I've sort of been lacking motivation. **

**Here you go! (Sorry for the crappiness OTL)**

* * *

><p>Recently, she'd been having dreams.<p>

Dreams about…

About…

About _fire_, of all things.

This fire was… different from the normal type, though.

Brighter, _purer_ somehow.

She played with it, in her dream. Shaped it into a myriad of different shapes, felt the cool lick of flames across her skin.

It didn't hurt her. It never hurt her.

But she had the distinct feeling that if she so wished, the flames could unleash a deadly force.

Previously, she'd been meek and mild – like the flames she toyed with during the hours she spent asleep. After she had begun to familiarize herself with the flame, however, and realized the sheer power she had seemingly at her fingertips, she'd begun to change irrevocably. With this power…

With what she had…

Her friends had begun to remark on this change in her personality. Heck, even the teachers had started to notice, clueless as they were about what happened even in the classrooms, let alone out of it.

All the insignificant things that had once mattered so very much to her. What were they again? Shopping? Cakes?

She snorted.

They were just so… mundane now.

The other girls at school, even. Their giggling drove her up the wall, made her want to… want to…

It made her want to _hurt_ someone. To drop her cheerful, bubbly façade – because her naturally bright personality had distorted, and what had once come naturally to her now needed to be forced – and to just _hurt_. Not to kill, not just yet, but she could feel the urge to building up in her. Ready to take over at any given time. It scared her, yes, but was also almost exhilarating as well, like she was balancing on the edge of a crumbling precipice, her feet scrambling for purchase.

When she had first had the dreams, she'd been terrified. Scared out of her wits. This fire… This fire had been enveloping her, consuming her. Or trying to, anyways. The creatures she saw in the flame were fearsome ones, lunging at her, snapping at her heels as she frantically tried to flee from them. She never could quite manage it, and she'd wake up paralyzed by fear. Too scared to even call out – not that she'd want to, given how the dreams were her fault.

Her fault, and her fault only. She knew exactly where they were coming from, but the reason _why_ lurked at the corner of her thoughts. She was so close to grasping the answer to it, but it stayed, forever elusive. She couldn't quite reach the conclusion she was striving for.

Research at the library, on her computer – was it necessary to say how pointless it was to even try? Looking up 'rings' brought her only to jewellery stores. Looking up 'dreams' brought her only the superstitious mumbo-jumbo she'd never quite believed in, and now was even more sceptical of due to the cold and logical state her mind was permanently trapped in.

She shouldn't've done it. Shouldn't've gone into his room, invaded his privacy.

But he'd been acting so weird lately…

The lies he'd been feeding her – did he really think that she'd bought into them? It pained her that he couldn't trust her with the truth anymore. They'd always been so very close, but ever since _he'd_ come, they'd been drifting apart. The hours he'd spent at home were even fewer now, and that was saying something. Between his perpetual training and school, they had been precious enough even before…

So it was only natural that her curiosity had drawn her into his room, led her to rifle through drawers and closets in search for something. Anything.

She'd given up, having found absolutely nothing of significance. Sighing, she'd turned to leave, picking up a pair of pants which had been carelessly tossed across the floor, meaning to add them to the laundry pile.

_Clatter._

A ring fell out, black with silver etchings.

It was her curiosity again. Her damn curiosity.

She'd picked it up, meaning to just examine what was on the ring. It hadn't seemed like anything special. Just a ring. Nothing much.

Until, of course, it had burst into flames at her touch.

Startled, she dropped the pants and bolted out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her, and straight into her own room like a rabbit into its hole.

She lifted a trembling hand, bracing herself to look at what would surely be a red, aggravated burn. M-maybe even the nerve endings had been burned away. That would explain the lack of pain.

But the skin was as unharmed and smooth as it had been before she'd come into contact with the flame.

And that night, she'd had her very first dream.

Bolting upright, she'd clapped her hands over her mouth to muffle the terrified whimper that threatened to tear its way out of her throat. Immediately, her mind made the link between the ring, the flame, and the dream. How could it not? The flame colors were exactly the same, and she knew instinctively that that was the source of it.

_I'm sorry, Onii-san._


	3. Vow of Venegance

**DISCLAIMER: I do not claim to own any part of Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, and am not profiting from the writing of this fanfiction in any monetary way. I am, however, thoroughly enjoying this, but that's something else entirely.**

**QUICK APOLOGY IN ADVANCE for both the slow update and pathetic chapter. Note: Onii-chan is Japanese for big brother, Senpai is how someone of a lower status refers to one of a higher.**

Bel flopped down on the luxurious bed of the only 5 star hotel in Namimori. He'd remembered the location from the ring battles, and had made a beeline towards it the instant he had been let off the plane. The luggage would have been left forlornly sitting alone in the airport had Fran not tiredly picked up the two suitcases and dragged them along behind him as he trailed behind the blonde sadist.

Striding confidently through the glass doors of the hotel, Bel had paused for a moment, looking blankly at the receptionist who had promptly turned three (or five, or ten) shades paler at the mere sight of the foreigner. Although the Prince seemed to have no recollection whatsoever of the timid Japanese woman currently cowering behind the marble-topped desk, she evidently did. All things considered, though, she handled the homicidal man rather well and managed to hand him a room key before his hand so much as twitched towards his knives in irritation - admittedly more than Fran himself would be able to do.

Upon entering the room, Bel had seemed to identify the four-poster as his long-lost love and had immediately proceeded to love the hell out of it. Namely, by immediately jumping onto it and lying spread-eagled in such a manner that it seemed like he was trying to embrace its gargantuan width.

Setting the luggage down calmly in the corner of the room, Fran watched with mild curiosity as the older man sprawled across the bed in a strangely ungainly fashion. He sighed and proceeded over to the second bed and sat down, stretching his legs out in front of him.

_Finally. I can rest now, without Bel-senpai botheri-_

"Oi, peasant." made an emergence. The voice was tired, muffled, and barely audible, but it still held hints of a threat.

"Senpai?"

"Unpack."

Fran remained unmoving, hoping that the fact that the Varia Storm could see even less of him than usual would mean that he would not be aware of the fact that Fran was shirking what the other thought of as 'authority' again. Or that the shaggy blonde would fall asleep before he could make good on his threat to impale him with a knife.

Barely had he had this thought when a knife came whistling past his ear and embedded itself in a bedpost.

"Now."

Huffing quietly, Fran got up and proceeded to unpack while thinking severely unkind thoughts towards the other for delaying his sleep. Almost as if he could hear the thoughts currently swirling through the other's head, a quiet _Ushishishishi~ _was heard, and then nothing more as the prince himself dozed off into a peaceful slumber.

Looking at the man with a mild frown on his face, Fran removed the hat and hung it on the knife embedded within the bedpost, and his Varia jacket as well, before getting back to work.

_At least, _he thought, smiling very faintly in sadistic enjoyment, _the Battle Commander didn't enroll me in Namimori High. _

The same could not be said, however, of the happily snoring prince next to him.

Who, granted, would be... not-so-happy when he found out.

* * *

><p>Kyoko woke up three times.<p>

The first time was when her brother 'extremely' woke up and felt the need to announce this to everyone in the Sasagawa household at four a.m. in the morning.

The second time was when aforementioned brother 'extremely' ate his breakfast. The slurping was phenomenal. Or, as he announced through a mouthful of cereal, 'extreme'.

The third time was when the teen exited the house (enthusiastically as always). Her Onii-chan did not believe in closing doors quietly.

It was now five a.m., and she couldn't go back to sleep.

Lying back on her pillow, she reached up behind it and pulled out a small object and slipped it onto her ring finger. Holding her hand up in front of her, she looked at the ring, examining it from every angle.

She'd taken it about two days ago. It got rid of the dreams, but she didn't mind so much, as it allowed her to play with the flames during her waking moments. Her brother was too busy being 'extreme' to ever notice its absence. Especially now 'Sawada' was entertaining him with his-

Kyoko stopped herself. Whenever she thought of Sawada Tsunayoshi and his stupid, inane smile, she just wanted to-

She watched idly as her fingers closed, almost instinctually, into a fist.

The flame lit again, bright and yellow.

She'll pay him back.

For the distance between her and her big brother now. For the numerous wounds she'd seen him stagger in with. For all the worrying she'd done when he hadn't shown up for sometimes days on end.

She'll pay it all back.

And she'll enjoy every moment.

**A/N: Welp, that's it! Please don't kill me, although you'd be perfectly justified to. I am so, so very sorry. **

**Heartfelt thanks and waves of love go to xXScarlatto-OokamiXx and MrsRegulusBlack123 for reviewing. I love the two of you to bits.  
><strong>

**Hopefully next chapter won't take too long. Writers block, gtfo, nobody likes you. **

**Except for maybe Bel who is probably giggling insanely to himself at the pain it's causing me. **


	4. Hazy Confusion

**A/N: I know, I know! What is this? An update and it hasn't even been a week, let alone my usual month? It's official. 2012 has come early. All joking aside, however, the reviews I received made me ridiculously and excessively happy. They even managed to somehow kill my writers block and I just had the urge to write all through school today. Had to suppress it though, and when I got home I immediately sat down and cranked this out in twenty minutes – I just needed to get all the ideas down before I lost my motivation again. So it's been proven – reviews are magical fairy dust. Speaking of reviews, thank the lord for xXScarlattoOokamiXx for her consistent and encouraging words, as well as SwanFrost15 for her review as well. I love you all to bits. Okay. This author's note is obscenely long, so I'll just shut myself up now. ON TO THE STORY!**

**Oh, but a disclaimer first. **

**I do not claim to own Katekyo Hitman Reborn, and the characters in this fanfiction are not mine. **

Bel was woken up rather unconventionally and with rather less fanfare than he felt he deserved. Being a Prince, and all.

Namely, by a frog hat to the face. Due to the impressive size and weight of the hat he himself had forced upon Fran's head, Bel now found it ridiculously difficult to breathe. Even princes, after all, required oxygen to carry out life processes which were rather important. For example, respiration.

Grimacing, he rolled over and wrenched the black object off his face. Fortunately for Fran, he was too disorientated to actually make good on the obscene and rather imaginative threats currently being muttered under his breath.

Well.

Fran had intended to wake the blond gently - he honestly had. God knew the irritable Storm would be put in a bad enough mood by the latest order from the Varia Headquarters.

He'd been leaning over the other, wondering how exactly one woke up a homicidal maniac without, well, being homicided (Namely by being impaled in any vital organs by one of his notorious collection of knives, each sharpened to such a point that if one was balanced perfectly on its honed edge, after a period of time it would begin to sink in through whatever material it had been left on. Personally, Fran had seen it happen to leather.

Coincidentally, Belphegor was threatening to demonstrate this again, only this time on Fran's skin.

But he'd digressed. The point was that as Fran had been pondering the answer to this dilemma that had suddenly presented itself, the hat - which, Fran insisted, had always had a life of its own - seemed to grow tired of waiting and rolled ponderously off the Varia Illusionist's head and promptly onto his senpai's head. He'd been too startled by the sudden removal of the perpetual weight on his head to catch it.

And there they were.

The only good thing about this situation, Fran noted rather gloomily (not that you could blame him for it - it wasn't every day one's life became threatened in 80 ways before 8 am in the morning) was that since the other was already in such a foul mood, it could hardly worsen in response to this new information about to be imparted to him.

"What the fuck?"

Fran sighed.

Evidently, it could.

"Senpai..." he droned monotonously, once again using his naturally dull voice in a futile attempt to soothe the Prince. "You really need to expand your vocabulary, anyways. This school wi-"

"I'll do what the fuck I want, peasant." Bel snapped irritably from behind a mane of tousled gold. "And the Prince is a genius. He shouldn't have to mingle with the common folk. Ushishishishishi~"

Fran said nothing, knowing it would be wasted breath. Yawning, he merely shoved a Namimori uniform, a phone and earphones into the other's hand, muttering a quick instruction of "first speed dial" before crawling off to slide back into a peaceful sleep in his own bed. He thought he'd been dreaming of pineapple fairies, but he wasn't quite certain.

Cautiously, Bel inserted the earphones into his ear and pressed the first number on the speed dial list. When the phone was picked up, he ventured a tentative, "Ushishi~ The Pri-"

"VOOII!"

Letting out a rather un-Princelike yelp, Bel ripped the earphones out and promptly flung it as far away from him as possible. The phone hit the wall with great force, chipping part of the paintwork out of it and bouncing relatively unharmed to the floor. He cursed, remembering that Squalo had commissioned several near-unbreakable mobiles with materials made out of the latest nanotechnology. They'd cost a lot, but considering that the boss could no longer crush them whenever he got bored or irritated with the conversation, it was a lot of money saved in the long run.

From where the phone lay, lying pathetically at the foot of the wall, Squalo's voice was still audible. Not just audible, but it was blaring so loudly out of the earphones that every syllable could be heard loud and clear, albeit with a slightly tinny quality.

"VOOII!" The Varia Commander hollered again, a sadistic smile forming on his lips in satisfaction as he listened to what sounded like almost a squeal from the other end of the line.

It was common knowledge among the Varia officers that their Storm user reverted back to the mindset of an eight year-old in the mornings, leaving him surprisingly vulnerable for a deadly assassin.

And, naturally, they all exploited the few moments in the mornings when the normally cunningly sly blond was befuddled and easily manipulated - they were rare indeed to come across and Squalo had pretty much guaranteed this mindset when he had booked the timings of the flight to Namimori.

Hence, also, Fran's instructions.

"The fuck you still doing in bed?" the silveret demanded, choosing to befuddle the other into thinking this was routine. "Get the fuck up, get fucking dressed, and get your fucking lazy ass to school or the shitty boss will be hearing about this!"

Bel blinked as the words sluggishly processed in his mind, shaking his head several times in a manner not unsimilar to that of a waterlogged puppy.

He... went to school? Didn't he work as an assassin? Overwhelmed by the unceasing assault on his eardrums, he found himself nodding dumbly in agreement.

Blearily stumbling out of bed to pick up the phone, Bel pulled the earphones out and minimized the volume as far as it would go. Pressing it to his ear, the Prince mumbled quick apologies to his 'mother'.

Squalo's eyebrow twitched in irritation, but he couldn't quite bring himself to remind the child prodigy that his mother was long dead. Gritting his teeth, Squalo merely huffed and hung up, shaking his head in disgust at his soft-hearted behaviour. Throwing the phone down violently, he promptly reasserted his manhood by swinging his sword in a criss-cross fashion at the unfortunate workmen who had come to fix the room the Shark of the Varia had so effortlessly decimated previously.

"Hurry the fuck up!"


	5. A Meeting

**Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn. All characters belong to Akira Amano. **

Meanwhile, over 6,000 miles away in Japan, Bel was obediently pulling on his uniform and brushing his teeth.

He had a vague, niggling feeling somewhere in the back of his mind that there was something he should be very irritated by, but for all his genius he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

Gloomily traipsing to school, Bel stopped on the way to buy himself a cup of coffee with the surprisingly large amount of money he found in the pocket of his jacket.

After he arrived at school there began the tedious introduction he had already suffered through under an alias. He said nothing throughout the first half, choosing to drain his cup of coffee as if he had been stranded in the desert for just under three days. For the third quarter, the coffee hadn't quite kicked in yet, so Bel directed his attentions to surveying the inane people in front of him.

He frowned.

One spiky-haired brunet was staring at him with an expression of complete horror on his face. It looked rather as if Bel had just taken his pet goldfish and swallowed it alive right in front of him.

_Hmm..._

No, Bel couldn't remember ever having done anything even remotely like that. That didn't say much, naturally, considering the mental state he was currently in, but still...

Bel examined the chocolate eyes carefully, and then everything seemed to fall in place. It was as if an external power had lent some great power to his brain that allowed the previously very unfinished puzzle pieces to click together and show the larger picture. Namely, the coffee. It had finally kicked in.

A look of intense irritation passed over the homicidal blonds face, and the Prince was just about to launch himself at the teacher to sate his bloodlust when he was snapped out of his chain of thoughts by a squeak.

It was a rather high-pitched one.

It went sort of like, "Hiiieee".

Scowling, he swung his head back around just in time to witness the Tenth Generation Vongola Boss, one of the top ten most influential people in the mafia world, the very one who had managed to best even the boss of Varia, stare at him with unadulterated terror in his eyes and then promptly topple off the back of his seat in his haste to get away.

A sadistic grin slowly worked its way back onto Bel's face, and he strolled nonchalantly to the seat he had occupied the last time he'd been in this quaint Japanese town - the seat next to whom he had managed to identify as the Vongola Sun's little sister.

_She hasn't seen me in this form before, _the Varia Storm noted offhandedly. _Last time, though, we got on pretty well. _

Noting her large, amber eyes fixated on him, Bel bared his teeth at her in a grotesque grin and then attempted to create the creepiest laugh humanly possible.

"Ushishishishi~"

Now, normally when Bel did this he would receive one of several reactions. The most common one usually was along the lines of what Sawada Tsunayoshi had just done. The others were essentially just variations on that theme with occasional entertaining bonuses of pants-wetting.

What he most certainly did _not _expect of the quite frankly fragile-looking girl was a polite smile back and a gentle inquiry of

"Hello, Belphegor-san. Have we met before?"

-

Kyoko was jumpy.

She'd lost track of the time as she lay there toying with the flames and had had to rush to get to school. Only when she was halfway there did she realize that the ring was still firmly on her finger.

Her brother didn't know she had it, she consoled herself, and if worst came to worst she'd just pull that innocent act again. God knew she'd spent enough time trying to build it up for a situation just like this.

She shook her head in disgust.

Did all males seriously think so lowly of females? Did they genuinely believe the idiotic act she put on, all bright smiles and cheer?

Granted, it hadn't been an act before, but she _was_ an honor student. It didn't exactly take deductive reasoning on par to the fictional Sherlock to figure out that Tsuna did not have the physique of a sumo wrestler. Unless, of course, aforementioned sumo wrestler had hibernated for several months straight without waking up once.

The act she put on was so sickly sweet it made her want to puke and get herself tested for diabetes at the same time. How anyone had found her charming before she simply did not know, nor would ever comprehend.

Needless to say, she was immensely grateful when the new student walked in. He would provide a ready distraction for those around her whose mediocre brains would be more than occupied with having to learn the new student's name and discerning physical features.

She took advantage of the arbitrary introductions to slip the ring off her finger and into her pocket where at least it would not be immediately visible to the casual observer. If her brother actively asked her for it, it would be another matter entirely. Kyoko doubted he would though - if there was one thing her brother could be relied upon it would be to defend her 'innocence'.

She scoffed.

Chivalry most certainly was not quite dead yet, but it probably should be. The world would be a much better place without it.

Now that the most urgent task was dealt with, she leant very slightly back in her chair and surveyed the blond currently standing at the front of the class with mild curiosity. There was something in his posture which reminded her of somebody she'd known for a brief while, but she couldn't quite put her finger on who...

_Oh?_

Kyoko perked up as she saw a glimmer of death intent emerge, simmering just under the surface of the other teen's carefully composed features. She allowed herself a small smirk. Maybe today wouldn't be a total waste of her time...

Unfortunately, the brown-haired idiot also known as Dame Tsuna (and for good reason as well) chose that precise moment to topple gracelessly backwards. Sliding a cool look across to him, Kyoko noted with detached disappointment that his neck wasn't broken. And to top it all off, when she returned her gaze to the new student he was sadly lacking in death intent.

She scowled. Damn that boy. He was constantly getting in the way of her fun with his constant talk of 'friends'. 'Pride'.

They'd see exactly how far that would get him when he lay bleeding out on the street.

Kyoko watched calmly as the blond came to sit in a seat next to hers, noting the concealed strength in his stride.

This boy...  
>And somehow she felt the need to correct herself.<p>

This man... he was a predator. The king of the jungle. Used to going unchallenged. And judging by the idiot brunet's reaction to him, Tsuna knew this all too well.

Hmm.

He would be a powerful ally.

**A/N: So sorry for the late(ish) update! It was my birthday today (May 1****st****), and I spent the latter half of it cranking this chapter out. Because I love all of you. Thanks to all who reviewed. Many virtual cookies and marshmallows to you. All of you, actually, who read my work. Have a hug over the internet. **

**Please don't expect me to update soon – I have exams coming up and they're rather important ones. GCSEs, anyone? Well, I lie. They're not actually that important outside of the UK but they determine whether I can get into the courses I want to next year. In fact, they determine whether I get to do next year at all. **

**So I'll be boringly at home revising. Do feel free to email me (PM me to get the email address) if you want to talk. **


End file.
